Google revealed this week that its business is under investigation by officials in South Korea and Argentina.

"Both Argentina's Comision Nacional de Defensa de la Competencia and the Korea Fair Trade Commission in South Korea have also opened an investigation into certain business practices," Google revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The search giant is also being probed by the Federal Trade Commission here in the U.S. According to reports, the agency just hired a well-known outside attorney, Beth A. Wilkinson, signaling that the government might take Google to court. Google did not respond to a request for comment about Wilkinson's hire.

The company did not provide any other details about the investigations in South Korea and Argentina. The probes were first reported by Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal.

South Korea's inquiry has been going on since at least last year; officials raided Google's offices there in September. In January, South Korea's antitrust commission said Google hampered an investigation into its business by deleting important files and could face fines.

Few details about the FTC probe have been released, but antitrust officials in Congress have been scrutinizing Google. In September, executive chairman Eric Schmidt appeared on Capitol Hill to defend his company's business practices and urge the FTC to be careful in its review.

Chloe Albanesius has been with PCMag.com since April 2007, most recently as Executive Editor for News and Features. Prior to that, she worked for a year covering financial IT on Wall Street for Incisive Media. From 2002 to 2005, Chloe covered technology policy for The National Journal's Technology Daily in Washington, DC. She has held internships at NBC's Meet the Press, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press office in London, Roll Call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from American University...
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